sherwood



' No. 609,748. Patented Aug. 23, I898.

A. B. SHERWOOD. METHOD 0F-PR|NTING REPRESENTATIONS 0F WOVEN FABRICS.

2 Sheets-Sheet I.

(No Model.)

No. 609,748. Patented Aug. 23, I898.

A. B. snznwunn. METHOD 0F PRINTING REPRESENTATIDNS 0F WOVEN FABRICS.

(Application filed Oct. 4, 1897.)

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet Z.

WITNESSES [Mil/V102? fill.) 212202728144 NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALEXANDER B. SHERWOOD, oEcIIIo eo, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR or ONE-HALF TO ZEPANIAI-I s. I-IOLBRQOK, oE sAME PLACE.

METHOD OF PRINTING REPRESENTATIONS OF WOVEN FABRICS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 609,748, dated August 23, 1898.

Application filed October 4, 1897. Serial No. 653,991. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER B. SHER- WOOD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Methods of Printing Representations of XVoven-Fabric Surfaces, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the art of reproducing upon sheets or webs of paper or other surfaces capable of being printed upon surface patterns or designs peouliarto woven fabrics and produced by relief effects in the Weavin g in contradistinction to patterns formed by mere variations of color in the thread.

My object is to provide an improved method of printing upon paper and other surfaces light and shade surface designs or patterns in imitation of the surface appearance of woven fabrics, whereby the representation shall be particularly realistic in appearance and be produced at comparatively low cost.

There is a surface appearance to all woven fabrics, irrespective of any variations of color, which is peculiarly distinctive, and hitherto fabrics have been employed for decorating in numerous instances where the surface appearance alone was the end sought and not especially, at least, strength or durability of texture. Attempts have hitherto been made to print upon paper imitations of the surface appearance of canvas, for instance, for decorative uses, the printing beingdone from engraved or molded surfaces prepared at comparatively great eXpense,which effect at the best but indifferent results.

My invention consists in reproducing upon a web or sheet of paper or other plane surface the surface appearance of a woven fabric by providing a fabric woven with the pattern or design to be produced, covering the surface of the fabric itself with ink of desired color, and then impressing the inked surface upon the plane surface.

Figure 1 is a view representing a reproduction of a fabric, and Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view of a printing-cylinder with the fabric secured thereto.

In carrying out my invention as I prefer to practice it in printing upon paper I fasten the fabric to be reproduced upon the cylinder or bed of a printing-press to afford the printing-surface and then operate the press to ink the fabric and feed the paper thereto in the usual way to receive the impression directly from the inked surface of the fabric. When the fabric is sufficiently coarse and the paper sufficiently thin, the latter is embossed with the design as well as printed therewith.

The drawings show a pattern or design printed from watered silk.

By employing paper suitably tinted or colored to represent the ground color of the de* sign and then printing from the fabric upon the ground color with a more or less contrasting shade of ink of the same or another color singularly realistic eifects-as of watered silk, for exam ple-may be obtained, which cannot, at least without very close inspection, be distinguished from the surface of watered silk itself.

I do not limit my invention to the use of any particular mechanism for carrying it out, nor do I limit it to printing directly from the fabric upon the surface which is to preserve the design, as a press may be employed, for

example, wherein the fabric will print upon a transfer-surface and the design thereby re= printed-or transferred to the paper or other surface to be decorated.

I am aware that it has been proposed to ink materials other than woven fabrics, such as vegetable leaves, and to use the same for transferring to other surfaces; but I am not aware that prior to my invention woven fabrics have been covered upon one side with ink and the side so covered impressed upon the plane surface to produce thereon the pattern or design of the woven fabric.

\Vhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The method of producing a pattern or design upon a plane surface, which consists in covering one side of a sheet of fabric woven with the design to be produced with ink of desired color, and then impressing the side of the fabric to which the ink has been applied upon the plane surface, substantially as described. y

2. The method of reproducing a design or pattern uponthe surface of flexible material, which consists in securing a sheet of fabric woven with the design to be reproduced upon the cylinder or bed of a printing-press, cov

and printed pattern or design upon a sheet or web of paper or like flexible material, which consists in covering one side of a sheet of fabio ric Woven with the design to be produced with ink of desired color, and then impressing the side of the fabric to which the ink has been applied upon the paper or the like, with force suflicient to emboss as Well as print the pattern or design upon the latter, substantially 15 as described.

ALEXANDER B. SHERWOOD. In presence of J. W. DYRENFORTH,

J. H. LEE. 

